The technology described herein generally relates to entrance control methods and systems. The technology relates in particular to the use of such an entrance control method or system in connection with a car park. Various examples of embodiment of the technology relate in particular to a registration process when the car park is used for the first time and a system for such a registration method.
A car park can be a simple, for example fenced-in, outdoor parking area or a building structure, for example a public multi-storey car park or a parking structure as part of a commercial, office or residential building. Irrespective of the specific kind of car park, the entry and exit are usually controlled by bar-type barriers, gates or similar barriers. Registered users (e.g. employees of companies who work in surrounding commercial buildings or occupants of the residential building) and visitors (non-registered users) have access. In both cases, charges may be levied for the use of the car park.
Various solutions are known for providing these user groups with an efficient entry and exit from the car park. In a public multi-storey car park, for example, visitors take a car park ticket and pay a parking charge, which depends on the parking time. Registered users, on the other hand, can fix RFID tags to their vehicles according to a known solution, which are read by an RFID reading device positioned in the entrance area. If there is an access permit, a bar-type barrier for example is opened and the user can drive into the car park. Such an RFID-based system is known for example from U.S. Pat. No. 8,742,949 B2. The RFID (radio frequency identification) technology is generally known; it is based on reading out information stored on an IC chip by means of radio waves by a reading device. The IC chip is usually located on a carrier. The carrier with the IC chip is also known as an “electronic tag”, “smart tag” or “electronic label”.
Another solution is based on the recognition of a vehicle registration number. When a barrier or bar-type barrier is approached in the area of the entrance, a digital camera takes photographs of the front side or rear side of the vehicle and image processing software evaluates the photographs in order to recognise the registration number therefrom (i.e. the alphanumeric character string present thereon). If the recognised registration number is present in the database, i.e. the vehicle is registered, the system opens the bar-type barrier and enables entry into the car park. Such a system is known for example as a “LetUgo” system, which is available from Adaptive Recognition America, Florida, and is described in the product brochure “LetUgo—Automated Vehicle Access Control System, Based on Parkit Camera”.
Methods for recognising the registration number of a vehicle are also the subject of scientific publications, see for example H. Kwasnicka et al., “License plate localization and recognition in camera pictures”, AI-METH 2002—Artificial Intelligence Methods, November 13-15, Gliwice, Poland; and S. Saha et al., “License Plate Localization from Vehicle Images: An Edge Based Multi-stage Approach”, International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering, vol. 1, no. 1, May 2009, pages 284-288.
The known solutions are based on different approaches, wherein each system has advantages and disadvantages. A car park ticket can get lost, so that ultimately there is uncertainty about the actual parking time. The RFID-based system requires that the RFID tag is always carried along in the vehicle. If one day the driver uses another vehicle and forgets to take the RFID tag along with him in the other vehicle, the otherwise smooth entry is disrupted. Although the registration number-based system avoids the drawback of the RFID tag being taken along, this system requires a registration of the user. There is therefore the need for a technology which is more user-friendly and more flexible.